Posts Tagged ‘Jeb Bush’

“I’m a millennial; in 15 years when the all-clear sign goes up on Iranian nuclear activity, I and my peers will be the ones in the cross-hairs,” Oliver Rosenberg told the JewishPress.com in a wide-ranging interview. “And Jerry Nadler, on the most consequential vote in a generation, where support for America’s and Israel’s security mattered most, let us all down.”

Rosenberg was on the phone from Washington, D.C., where he is attending the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

Rosenberg has just launched his congressional campaign, seeking to unseat Cong. Jerrold Nadler who has been ensconced as the representative to Congress from New York City’s Upper West Side for decades.

In any other year such a challenge might be laughed off as an impossible dream, but this year, after Nadler sold out his heavily Jewish constituency by knuckling under to President Obama and supporting the Nuclear Iran Deal, the time just may be ripe.

There is a lot about Rosenberg that naturally appeals to residents of the Upper West Side. He is a health care entrepreneur who spent half a decade as an investment banker focused on renewable energy. He’s a Jewish Orthodox day school alumnus, a graduate of Yeshiva University’s business school, the grandson of Holocaust survivors and a fervent lover of Israel who spent a year in yeshiva there and made at-least-yearly visits since he was six years old.

Given the make-up of the community and the strong position taken by nearly all major Jewish and other pro-Israel organizations against the Nuclear Iran Deal, Rosenberg was deeply disappointed that Nadler supported the Iran Deal which contains unacceptable shortcomings.

Rosenberg pointed out the 15 year pathway to Iranian nuclear power, the $150 billion relief in sanctions that can and will be used to support terrorism and the lack of promised anytime, anywhere inspections drew the ire of district residents, including himself, who saw and still see Nadler’s act as a grave betrayal.

While it is true that Nadler has not faced a primary opponent in more than two decades – the political makeup of the district guarantees whoever is the Democratic nominee will be the Representative – Rosenberg sees the time as propitious. “We have entered a new and dangerous chapter in American government,” Rosenberg said, pointing to the inertia of incumbents feel more beholden to those in party leadership than to their own constituents.

Rosenberg sees the current hyper-partisanship of Washington as a disservice to those who elect them to office. He points to Nadler’s history of such extreme partisanship: “efforts to impeach President George W. Bush, attacks on former Mayor Rudy Guiliani, even harsh criticism of the previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg, for investigations into the actions of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

“When it comes to legislation supportive of Israel or other common sense measures, I will reach across the aisle to create bipartisan support,” Rosenberg explained. He hopes such bipartisanship will flourish during the next administration.

“A recent survey showed that more than 70 percent of American Republicans support Israel, and more than 55 percent of American Democrats do. So why isn’t that reflected in how the parties vote?” According to Rosenberg, the elected class is not reflecting the wishes of the people, and that greatly concerns him.

In what ways does Rosenberg want U.S. dealings with Israel to change, should he play a part in shaping American policy towards Israel? For one, he wants U.S. military aid to Israel to double, to $6 billion. “Israel should be able to purchase F-22 stealth jets, which it does not currently have.” Rosenberg also believes Israel should have access to bunker buster bombs.

The neighborhood in which Israel resides has gotten dramatically more dangerous recently, and a huge factor adding greatly to that danger is the Nuclear Iran Deal.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush made one of the most painful decisions of his life Saturday night: he suspended his 2016 campaign to run for president of the United States.

Bush ran his campaign on his track record, his common sense and his solid background of success. One would think that would have been enough to at least have brought him into the top circle.

He is ethical, knowledgeable, smart, and has a great track record.

But in the age of glitzy multi-media, the Harry Truman thing is no longer enough.

Worse, Bush has two prior presidents in the family that he either had to live up to, or to live down. In either case, they were shadows that followed him wherever he went.

Hillary Clinton’s own historic shadow was right there beside her and able to ride the glitzy 21st century wave of technology. But for the most part, Bush’s shadows mostly left him to face the public alone at every stage. It was only in South Carolina that the family came out to help – and it was too little, too late.

Especially when it came to appearing before the cameras: a place where Bush often appeared awkward and uncomfortable. His body language lacked confidence; when he spoked – always courteous, educated, to the point – his voice held no authority. He shined at Town Hall meetings: but America’s presidential campaigns no longer really depend on these since the country has grown so large, and broadcast media reigns supreme.

When the voters are watching the candidates on television, focus groups interviewed after the debates or the broadcast Town Hall meetings explain: They’re not looking for a micro-manager – presidents HIRE experts. What voters in America look for is a qualified executive who will lead: someone who is knowledgeable, ethical but authoritative and who automatically attracts a nation’s respect.

The media mavens who worked with Jeb Bush either did not work with him long enough, or he wasn’t paying attention. Or maybe he secretly just didn’t want this job bad enough – also a distinct possibility.

(Ted Cruz – Trump’s closest competitor — incidentally, is another candidate who either should be paying more attention to his media mavens – or should change the ones he is working with. He too has major issues with his body language and vocal delivery. Cruz is a candidate who should have easily bypassed Trump by now – but Trump has him beat by a country mile due to his charisma problem.)

In any case on Saturday night, Bush, 63, had enough.

When it was clear he would not even be able to pull South Carolina, where the Bush family is really well-loved, Bush told his supporters: “The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken and I really respect their decision, so tonight I am suspending my campaign,” he said. The audience gasped, according to CNN, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

But really, it’s no surprise. What’s surprising is that he was able to hang on this long.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won a narrow victory in Nevada’s Democratic caucus – but the primary was held on a Saturday and therefore excluded all observant Jewish voters.

Even so, the heavy turnout indicated that Clinton is going to face an uphill battle even in states she thought she might win handily. At the end, with 85 percent of the precincts reporting in Nevada, the two-time First Lady won 53-47.

Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory and said he looked forward to the primaries and caucuses ahead.

The Republican contest in South Carolina on the same day involved a far broader field, but Donald Trump again triumphed with 33 percent, although his victory margin has narrowed. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio battled for second place with 99 percent of the precincts reporting; Rubio had a slim lead with slightly more than 22 percent. Rubio had placed third in Iowa, where Cruz won.

Jeb Bush decided to suspend his campaign after a night in which the numbers made it clear he was just not in the picture for this year’s run. It is not yet clear to whom he will encourage his supporters to turn.

At his victory rally, Trump dismissed the idea that other candidates would benefit from Bush’s decision to end his campaign. “[Analysts] don’t understand that as people drop out, I’m going to get a lot of those votes,” he said. He acknowledged the negative turn the race had taken, saying it had become “mean” and “vicious” but added, “When you win, it’s beautiful.”

In typical businessman manner, he ended his speech as if closing a deal: “Let’s put this thing away, and let’s make America great again.”

After the results of the first two election battles in this U.S. presidential campaign season, the crowd has begun to thin out.

After the Iowa caucus and before the New Hampshire primary, Governors Mike Huckabee and Martin O’Malley dropped out.

And now, with disappointing results in Tuesday’s primary, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, both called it quits.

Look for still more to fall by the wayside as the intense primary season proceeds full steam. While the frontrunner Donald Trump, followed by Gov. John Kasich, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are all probably in the running for quite a bit longer, it won’t come as surprise to political viewers if neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson soon calls it quits unless he gets a top tier showing in the next few primaries.

The South Carolina Republican primary will take place on Feb. 20, with Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders going head to head in South Carolina the following Sturday, on Feb. 27. That same week are the Nevada contests, with Democrats voting on Feb. 20 and the Republicans just a few days later on Feb. 23.

March 1 will be a huge day, with more than a dozen contests scheduled, including Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. By the time that is over, the pecking order should be quite a bit clearer.

The contests will continue right up until the District of Columbia primary on Tuesday, June 14.

The two long-shots each came in first in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night.

Donald Trump bested the other Republicans and Bernie Sanders was the chosen Democratic nominee.

The networks called the Republican race shortly after 8:00 p.m. As of press time there was no clear second place finisher, although Gov. John Kasich seemed to be pushing ahead, with Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz battling for third place.

New Hampshire residents are notoriously hard to pin down on predictive polls. This year was no different; a CNN exit poll showed 46 percent of Republican primary voters made up their minds only in the last three days.

The win for Sanders was decisive. Less than an hour after the polls closed at 8:00 p.m., Hillary Clinton called Sanders to concede the race. With 21 percent of the precincts reporting, Sanders had a solid 58 percent, with Clinton trailing at 40 percent.

All political watchers now swivel towards South Carolina, which holds its primary on Feb. 20.

U.S. evangelists are up in arms over the disproportionate number of Muslim refugees who have entered the United States.

However, a Bloomberg poll has shown that two-thirds of Americans don’t discriminate between Christian and Muslim refugees and that they don’t want either of them in the country.

The Christian News Service (CNS) claimed that since the Paris massacres last month, “the State Department has admitted 132 Syrian refugees into the United States, and all 132 are Sunni Muslim.”

It added:

No Christian, Druze, Shi’ite, Alawite, or member of any other religious minority in Syria has been admitted over that period, according to data from the State Department Refugee Processing Center.

The Washington Free Beacon reported, shortly after the Paris attacks, that a grand total of five non-Muslims entered the United States since October 1. Three of the five were Catholics, one was Christian and the fifth was an “Orthodox believer.”

“This accounts for just 1.6 percent of all refugees accepted, far below the 10 percent of the population Syrian Christians comprise,” according to the website. CNS reported this week:

A similar trend can be seen over the entire period of the Syrian civil war, which began in mid-March 2011.

Over that time, a total of 2,296 Syrian refugees have been admitted into the U.S. as of Monday. Of those, 2,137 (93 percent) were Sunni Muslims, an additional 60 were described simply as “Muslim,” and 13 were Shia.

Only 53 (2.3 percent) were Christian (including five Orthodox and four Catholics). The remaining religious breakdown was eight Jehovah’s Witness, six Zoroastrians, three atheists, two Baha’i, one Yazidi, seven ‘no religion’ and six ‘other religion.’

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said in a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday in Iowa that the Obama administration should be more open to admitting Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria because of the persecution they face.

He explained said Christians face rape, slavery and beheading at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) and that if they are able to escape, other Muslims persecute them.

President Barack Obama plans to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees and has sharply criticized Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz for saying priority should be given to Christians.

President Obama said:

When I hear folks say that, well maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of the those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful.

Hillary Clinton also has come out against favoring Christians. She said, “Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims, slamming the door on every Syrian refugee—that is just not who we are.”
Since January, 1,875 Syrians have arrived in the United States, but only 30 (1.6 percent) of them were Christian, compared with 1,833 Muslims (97.8 percent).